The subject embarrasses and divides the government, but Bruno the Mayor does not admit defeat. Certainly, crisis management remains the priority, but it will be necessary to tackle, one day, the pension reform. Here is, in essence, what the Minister of the Economy said, this Saturday, February 13, on BFM TV.
Regain healthy public finances
Today, we protect the French, we protect employees, we protect businesses, but when the time comes, we will have to find healthy public finances.
And that goes through the duration of the work. ” We are […] the developed country that works the least (a statement regularly contradicted by statistics). And, at the same time, we are the country with the most generous social protection system. It is no longer tenable. And the French know it. “
For Bruno Le Maire, keep a generous and efficient social protection system at a cost
: If we want to manage to pay for it, without it weighing on the pensions of the French, we must all agree to work more together.
At the end of November 2020, the minister made this reform a “Top priority”, even if it means standing out from his colleagues on the subject. Élisabeth Borne, the Minister of Labor, replied a few days later that this reform was not the executive’s “priority”.
Opinion shared by Emmanuel Macron, at the beginning of December, in front of the senators. The Head of State explained that the project will not be implemented during the crisis we are living
, summarized Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Les Républicains group in the Senate, adding: His words did not seem to me to confirm the recent statements of Bruno Le Maire.
But when?
Is the Minister of the Economy going apart? His speech this Saturday can be interpreted in several ways. On the one hand, he brings back to the table a subject that no one, in the majority, wants to discuss, especially at this time. A way to reaffirm its ambition not to back down on the subject.
On the other hand, he also postpones the reform until later, since it will have to be done, according to him, as soon as the economic crisis is behind us
: When the economic machine starts up again, that growth will return.
Knowing that forecasters hardly foresee a recovery before the second half of 2021, this would be tantamount to initiating a pension reform, that no union wants to hear about until 2022, six months before the Presidential election. Unthinkable. Unless the subject becomes an electoral argument carried by the right-wing opposition and its future candidate.
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